Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris admits being denied a winner against Sporting CP by VAR papered over their sloppy first-half.

Spurs thought they had booked a place in the Champions League knockout stage as group winners when Harry Kane scored in stoppage time but the goal was ruled out by the VAR for a fractional offside, leaving Antonio Conte incandescent.

The head coach was shown a red card for his protests and is set to be banned from the touchline for at least one match, depending on the content of referee Danny Makkelie's report, which will be sent to UEFA today.

“There are two ways to reflect about the game," Lloris told the London Evening Standard. “The one I prefer is to say if we had played the first half in the same way as the second — with the same energy, with the same willingness to go forward, to press the opponent and be very dominant — probably the score would have been different.

“The other way to reflect on the game is the goal disallowed in the last minute. Everyone can have their own opinion about the decision and the action.

“We don't want to give up and I liked the response of the team in the second half. The last two games had referee decisions which were not on our side, but we will carry on until the World Cup break.

“Even if we have to suffer, we have to go through and to finish. Like every team, playing every three days you cannot play 90 minutes with intensity, so you miss 20 to 30 minutes in a game.

“[In that period] we have to be more cautious and try to avoid conceding chances. But that is high-level football. It is just a period we have to deal with and go through and hopefully we will finish this period with better feelings."